Michael Ball tackles the big issues at Hill Dickinson Stadium following Everton's 3-3 draw with Manchester City
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MAY 04: Merlin Rohl of Everton in action with Jeremy Doku of Manchester City during the Premier League match between Everton and Manchester City at Hill Dickinson Stadium on May 04, 2026 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
Merlin Rohl of Everton in action with Jeremy Doku of Manchester City during the Premier League match at Hill Dickinson Stadium on May 4
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(Image: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
While we were ultimately disappointed that Everton didn’t win against Manchester City having led 3-1, after picking up what you could consider something of a ‘bonus point’ against a title-challenging side, I’m now expecting another nine from the last three matches of the season.
Perhaps it sounds greedy, or unrealistic, but I don’t think so. There are tough lessons to learn against opponents like City if David Moyes’ side have got aspirations of playing in Europe next season.
but while Everton haven’t picked up the wins we’d have hoped they’d have got or the number of points that their performances might have deserved over the past month, now is the time to start delivering in what remains a congested middle of the Premier League table and close-run fight for European qualification places.
A European run can help keep excitement building all the way through a season and we’ve seen that with our next opponents Crystal Palace.
While they’ve not enjoyed the type of campaign they’d have wanted in the Premier League, especially after their bright start, having won the first trophy in their history a year ago by lifting the FA Cup, they’re now hoping to secure another one and with a 3-1 lead from their semi-final first leg away to Shakhtar Donetsk ahead of tonight’s return match, they’ll be aiming to have reached the UEFA Conference League final by the time we travel down to Selhurst Park on Sunday.
Hopefully we can catch Palace at a good time because, regardless of the result, tonight’s semi-final will take a lot out of their players and Oliver Glasner might choose to shuffle his pack at the weekend, and if they have made it through to the final then some of their players might already have an eye on that game. These have been the type of tests where Everton have often fallen short in recent years though, and we need to put that right.
As we saw against Manchester City, or even the trip to Arsenal when we ultimately fell short, Everton raise their game when they come up against the best, but when we’ve faced teams around us or those who are below us in the table, especially in cup games, it feels like we just think we can turn up and roll these type of opponents over and that’s certainly not the case.
I’m hoping that we can take the positives from the Manchester City game but that gives us the focus and determination to do better and go down to south London and get a victory in order to get our European hopes back on track. David Moyes also faces some interesting potential selection dilemmas for the game.
Merlin Rohl has now emerged from nowhere to become a candidate on the right wing. After creating what was Everton’s only real chance of the first half against Manchester City with a lung-busting run, he then ‘picked out’ Thierno Barry for our third goal although, as I’ve already said this week, I suspect it was a shot, so perhaps he needs to get back on the training ground at Finch Farm to work on that.
In terms of his physical output though he was outstanding with the kind of energetic display that Evertonians love to see. We knew that he was quite a mobile player, but I don’t think anybody realised he had quite the turn of pace that he displayed – he was like Usain Bolt!
Another player who could now come back into the manager’s thinking is Barry after he was introduced off the bench and scored two goals. He took his first very coolly against Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was out quickly and is a considerable obstacle between any attacker and the goal and while the outside of the foot finish for his second perhaps looked a bit odd, he made it look easy.
Barry has had a difficult period since the Arsenal game, both in terms of his form and the aftermath of his online comments following the incident with the fans. My position behind the home dugout on Monday also ensured that I got a close-up view of him warming up and he looked quite languid as he was getting ready.
I think that’s just his natural body language though and that sometimes counts against him because, especially compared to the bustling Beto, it can appear that he’s not trying, but that isn’t the case. I was laid back as a player, and even Duncan Ferguson could appear that way, but Thierno is virtually horizontal.
He’s now on eight goals for the season and while players might not declare such things in public, you always like to give yourselves little targets and he’ll be looking to finish his debut season in the Premier League on double figures now.